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Pebble submits fix for its iOS app version 2.1

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 01 Apr 2014 2:18

Pebble submits fix for its iOS app version 2.1 Yesterday, smartwatch maker Pebble desperately asked its users not to install version 2.1 of their iOS app, as it was broken for many users and had a critical flaw that could break the sync between the watch and the application.

The company said the v2.1 glitch affected "connecting, loading, and managing" the watch.

Pebble announced earlier today that they have submitted a fix to the iOS App Store, and are asking for an expedited review given the nature of the update.

For the time being, Pebble has hidden the app to avoid manual downloads, but it can still be automatically updated if you have such updates enabled through iOS.

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AfterDawn: News

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg takes $1 salary

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 01 Apr 2014 2:06

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg takes $1 salary Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has dropped his salary to $1 per year, following the path of other billionaire tech moguls like Steve Jobs, Larry Page, Sergey Brin and others.

Zuckerberg took a $1 salary in 2013 and will do so again in 2014. This follows a base salary of $503,205 in 2012. His overall compensation was $653,165, mainly for use of his private planes and security, fees, fuel, crew and catering costs.

The CEO is one of the richest men in the world, with a current wealth of over $25 billion due to his large ownership stake in the social media giant.

Last year, Zuckerberg sold 60 million shares valued at $3.3 billion, while gifting another 18 million to charity.




AfterDawn: News

Marvell's patent verdict increased to $1.54 billion

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 01 Apr 2014 1:52

Marvell's patent verdict increased to $1.54 billion Marvell Technology has seen its penalties increase for infringing on hard drive patents owned by Carnegie Mellon University.

Last year, a jury awarded the University $1.17 billion over the patents related to how accurately hard disk- drive circuits read data from high-speed magnetic disks. Mellon first sued Marvell in March 2009 over the patents issued in 2002.

The University said at least nine different Marvell circuit devices used the patents and Marvell sold billions of chips using the technology without permission. The jury agreed. This week, a federal judge increased the damages to $1.54 billion although the award was much less than the maximum $3.75 billion Carnegie was seeking.

"This award is sufficient to penalize Marvell for its egregious behavior and to deter future infringement activities," the judge wrote in his decision. The $3.75 billion in damages would have "severely prejudiced" Marvell and could have threatened the company's future, added the judge.

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AfterDawn: News

Jawbone buys up Playground.fm, possibly for eight figures

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 01 Apr 2014 1:37

Jawbone buys up Playground.fm, possibly for eight figures Speaker hardware company Jawbone has confirmed the acquisition of Playground.fm, the social music playlist app.

Although the terms were undisclosed, sources claim the acquisition cost Jawbone "eight figures." Jawbone has a valuation near $3 billion after raising $250 million last year, and is expected to go public this year.

Playground is free on iOS and claims to be "human-powered radio" which pulls data from your social media and Spotify to build a personalized, curated radio station.

While the service itself is popular, Jawbone likely made the purchase for Playground's patents and its team. One of the top executives is Mehul Trivedi, Apple's original iOS audio engineer.

There is now speculation that Jawbone could start its own Internet radio service that could be included with the company's Jambox products.




AfterDawn: News

Yet another Valve engineer joins Oculus VR

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 01 Apr 2014 1:18

Yet another Valve engineer joins Oculus VR Marking the third time in recent weeks that a VR engineer has left Valve, developer Aaron Nicholls is the latest to join Oculus VR.

Oculus confirmed the move through Twitter, stating simply "We're thrilled to welcome Aaron Nicholls to the team! He'll be working out of the Bellevue R&D lab with Atman and crew."

Nicholls helped code and also managed on hit games like Gears of War, Halo 3 and Jade Empire for Microsoft Studios before joining Valve in 2010 to help with design, gameplay and systems.

Facebook recently acquired Oculus VR for $2 billion, bringing the future of gaming to the mainstream.

Last week, Oculus VR announced the hiring of Michael Abrash as its Chief Scientist, a major industry vet leaving Valve. In the tweet, the Atman mentioned is Atman Binstock, who was also previously an engineer on Valve's virtual reality projects.

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AfterDawn: News

Twitch sees record numbers as Xbox One usage grows

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 01 Apr 2014 12:58

Twitch sees record numbers as Xbox One usage grows Microsoft has announced today that Twitch is now seeing record numbers following a boost in Xbox One usage of the services.

The app added broadcasting for Xbox on March 10th, and the company says there have been over 23 million minutes broadcast from Twitch on Xbox One since this launch.

Says the software giant: "This includes more than 2.7 million minutes broadcast from Xbox One March 10-11, the most ever for a Twitch console app in its first day. Additionally, 30 percent of all Twitch unique broadcasters were broadcasting from Xbox One during the app's first day.

In its first week, 108,000 unique Twitch users tried their hand at broadcasting from Xbox One, accounting for 22 percent of Twitch's unique broadcasters in the same period of time. To put that in perspective, according to Twitch, it took another console a month to achieve what the Twitch app on Xbox One did within its first week. New broadcasters are really getting into it, too, as the average Twitch broadcast on Xbox One is nearly as long as the average American TV sitcom at 28 minutes."

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AfterDawn: News

OkCupid takes strong stance against Mozilla and its new CEO

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 31 Mar 2014 8:52

OkCupid takes strong stance against Mozilla and its new CEO The online dating site OkCupid has taken a strong stance against Mozilla Firefox, protesting the browser due to new Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich's stance against gay marriage.

Eich supported California's Proposition 8 (which banned gay marriage) and even donated to the politicians backing the bill.

OkCupid says it will not stand for intolerance, and that eight percent of the relationships formed via the site would be illegal if bills like Prop 8 were passed everywhere. "OkCupid is for creating love," says the company. "Those who seek to deny love and instead enforce misery, shame, and frustration are our enemies, and we wish them nothing but failure."

Here is the full post from OkCupid:



Hello there, Mozilla Firefox user. Pardon this interruption of your OkCupid experience. Mozilla's new CEO, Brendan Eich, is an opponent of equal rights for gay couples. We would therefore prefer that our users not use Mozilla software to access OkCupid.

Politics is normally not the business of a website, and we all know there's a lot more wrong with the world than misguided CEOs. So you might wonder why we're asserting ourselves today. This is why: we've devoted the last ten years to bringing people--all people--together. If individuals like Mr. Eich had their way, then roughly 8% of the relationships we've worked so hard to bring about would be illegal. Equality for gay relationships is personally important to many of us here at OkCupid. But it's professionally important to the entire company. OkCupid is for creating love. Those who seek to deny love and instead enforce misery, shame, and frustration are our enemies, and we wish them nothing but failure.

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AfterDawn: News

Some older HTC devices to get Sense 6.0 by the summer

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 31 Mar 2014 8:08

Some older HTC devices to get Sense 6.0 by the summer A leaked HTC document has revealed which smartphones will be getting which Android and Sense UI updates.

The new HTC One M8 is the first with the new Sense 6.0 user interface (video below) but it will not be the only in the line to receive the update.

According to the table, 2013's HTC One, One Dual Sim, One Max, One Mini and Butterfly S will all receive Sense 6.0 to go along with their Android 4.4.2. The time frames are between June and July. All those devices have Android 4.4 and Sense 5.5 currently.

If you have a two year old phone, you are out of luck. Your phone will not be getting Android 4.4 or Sense 6.0. Many will not even get Sense 5.5.

Keep in mind this has not been confirmed by HTC, but if accurate should provide a thorough map for your device.

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AfterDawn: News

An iPhone 6 photo rumored to be from Foxconn and 3D renders emerge

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 31 Mar 2014 7:00

An iPhone 6 photo rumored to be from Foxconn and 3D renders emerge A Weibo user has posted a photo alleging to be the iPhone 6, directly from manufacturer Foxconn.

The caption of the photo said "These are the pictures of the real iPhone 6 which were taken at Foxconn."

Although there is always the chance that the photos are faked, the images do appear to fit within expectations for the new flagship device.

Using the schematics, Nowhereelse put together 3D renders of the device, which is rounder, thinner and larger. The schematics point to two new devices, one at 4.7 inches and one at 5.7 inches, well in the phablet range and huge compared to current model iPhones.

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AfterDawn: News

Moto G is a huge hit in the UK

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 31 Mar 2014 6:36

Moto G is a huge hit in the UK Motorola's Moto G has been a big hit in the UK, turning around Moto UK's fortunes in the process.

The company had close to zero market share in the region headed into 2014, but that share has now jumped to a full 6 percent thanks mainly to the cheap Android device.

Sales data from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech shows the share for the three month period ended February 2014. Motorola put the G on sale last November for $179. We reviewed the phone and found it to give incredible bang for the buck, including a vibrant screen, fast internals a near-stock Android experience.

Notes Kantar's Dominic Sunnebo: "Motorola was nowhere in Europe before the Moto G launched in November last year, but the new model has since boosted the manufacturer to 6% of British sales. It highlights the speed at which a quality budget phone can disrupt a market."

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AfterDawn: News

Oppo Find 7a goes up for pre-order on April 7th

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 31 Mar 2014 5:49

Oppo Find 7a goes up for pre-order on April 7th Oppo has announced that the international Find 7a (non-premium) will go up for pre-order on April 7th.

Oppo's Find 7 will actually come in two models, the Find 7a and the premium Find 7, which a premium version.

The Find 7a has a 5.5-inch 1080p display, a 2.3GHz Snapdragon 800, 2GB RAM, 16GB internal storage and a 2800mAh battery. The premium model has a 5.5-inch quad HD (2,560 x 1,440) display, 3GB RAM, a 2.5GHz Snapdragon 801, 32GB internal storage and a larger 3000mAh. Both have Gorilla Glass 3, a microSD slot (expandable up to 128GB), LTE, MaxxAudio plus Dirac HD audio enhancement and VOOC rapid charging promising "zero to 75 percent" in just 30 minutes.

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AfterDawn: News

Another long-time Windows, Office executive is leaving the company

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 31 Mar 2014 5:37

Another long-time Windows, Office executive is leaving the company Another longtime Windows and Office executive is leaving Microsoft.

Antoine Leblond is leaving after over 24 years and just months after his position was reorganized. The executive is leaving today, which is his 9,000th day on the job.

Reads Leblond's email: "After almost 25 years, I've decided it's time for me to go out and see what the non-Microsoft world has to offer.

"Every single day I have had here has been amazing in its own way, and I will never look back on all of these years with anything but fondness, pride in what we've accomplished together, and a real appreciation for having been lucky enough to be part of so many awesome things. I am sad to leave all of you, but also incredibly excited for what comes next."


The exec spent his first 20 years working for Office, before moving to Windows and helping to develop the cloud services and store for Windows 8.




AfterDawn: News

Man who had pirated 'DVD factory' in his home gets suspended jail sentence

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 31 Mar 2014 5:24

Man who had pirated 'DVD factory' in his home gets suspended jail sentence Kevin Morris of Chorley, West England, has plead guilty and received a 12 week jail sentence suspended for 18 months for 13 charges of copyright infringement and other trademark crimes.

Additionally, the pirate will have to serve 100 hours of community service.

Morris manufactured pirated films from Universal, Paramount and Disney and even included artwork that was either custom or made to match the original.

On Facebook, Morris boasted about sales and also offered to sell up to 10 films for £15. Last June, officers made the purchase and then raided his home, seizing computers, discs and other equipment. By August, Morris was back to selling online on Facebook, even after having the equipment taken.

Lancashire Trading Standards prosecutor Nick McNamara added: "Recently Trading Standards officers have seen a trend of counterfeiters turning to Facebook to advertise and sell their wares. To criminals, Facebook offers a number of advantages over more traditional means because unlike market stalls and e-Bay there's little official scrutiny given.

"It's down in no small part to the fact criminals are able to control who has access to their pages in such a way they can only be viewed by 'friends'. Closed communities often exist for the sole purpose of trading in counterfeit products."

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AfterDawn: News

Google: News outlets under attack by hackers

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 31 Mar 2014 4:34

Google: News outlets under attack by hackers According to Google security engineers, the world's top news organizations have been and are under current attack from state-sponsored hacking attacks.

At least 21 of the world's 25 largest international news organizations have been targeted.

Shane Huntley, a security software engineer at Google, says "journalists were massively over-represented" among targets of attacks, and that the hackers were working for or in a support of a government. Huntley and co-author Morgan Marquis-Boire presented the paper at a Black Hat conference.

"If you're a journalist or a journalistic organization we will see state-sponsored targeting and we see it happening regardless of region, we see it from all over the world both from where the targets are and where the targets are from," Huntley added. It is unclear how Google monitors the attacks but Huntley says the search giant "tracks the state actors that attack our users."

The news is none too surprising, given that Forbes, the Financial Times and New York Times have all admitted to being successfully attacked by the Syrian Electronic Army, a group of hackers. The Google researchers claim that one major news outlet was recently attacked by Chinese hackers via a fake questionnaire emailed to staff.




AfterDawn: News

Roku's HDMI Streaming Stick now available through major retailers

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 31 Mar 2014 3:46

Roku's HDMI Streaming Stick now available through major retailers Roku has begun shipping the update to their Streaming Stick (2012), one that will directly compete with Google's Chromecast HDMI dongle.

The original model sold for $99 but the second-generation model will sell for $49.99. The Chromecast sells for $35 with a limited lineup of applications that is rapidly expanding. Just like the Chromecast, the Streaming Stick must be plugged into the TV's USB port for power aside from being placed in the HDMI port.

As part of the second-generation update, the Streaming Stick now supports 1080p and will come with an included remote familiar to Roku set-top owners. The remote has quick action buttons for Netflix, Amazon, and strangely, Blockbuster and M-Go.

Roku has a large lineup of channels, including all of the most popular streaming applications and almost 1,200 more. You can "cast" YouTube and Netflix, just like the Chromecast, and control the device from iOS and Android phones and tablets.

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